Category Influenster

Post navigation

A couple of weeks ago I received a pre-qualifying survey from Influenster for the “next Canadian voxbox”. While I admit that I hoped it would be full of a variety of goodies, I am very pleased with what I received in the mail a few days later. (And when I say a few days, I literally mean a few days. I took the qualifying survey on a Friday and had my nails in the mail by the next Thursday… awesome!).

I received the two pairs pictured above. The pink is #56663 “Control Freak” and the lacey design is #56888 “Holla!”. I loved both so I was definitely pleased.

You can see from the pictures above that application is actually very easy. First you need to open the box and find the sizes that fit you perfectly. Lay all 10 of them out ahead of time so that you aren’t trying to find them while you’re actually putting them on. Wash your hands with soap and water, let dry, and then wipe your nails with the enclosed prep pad. Then, peel the backing off the nails as you go, starting with your pinkie finger and working towards your thumb. Press the imPress nail onto your nail starting with the middle and then press down the edges… Voila, you’ve got an instant manicure. (Okay, so it wasn’t “instant”, but I’ll still take 5 minutes over the time it takes me to paint my nails or go to the salon!).

Pictures above is “Control Freak”, the first pair I tried. I loved them instantly. For me, with my short nails, they worked amazing and I received compliments from ladies in an online group telling me that they looked like my natural nails. And they did! Nobody in person was able to tell a difference, either. It just looked like I had painted my nails an awesome colour of pink.

I got a new macro lens for my cell phone camera (yes, cell pics this blog post, ack, sorry!), and I decided to give it a shot on my nails. I took a macro picture of the Control Freak nails to try and show that there was a little bit of blue sparkle under that pink that made it just shine… Love!

The above pictures are the design “Holla!”, which I also love.

And then, because many people I know did not like the imPress nails because they did not fit their longer nails, I received LOTS of designs in the mail….

Pictured above is “Sparkling Neon Pink Zebra”. While I’m not sure that’s actually their name, I forgot to check the box before I threw it away, and that’s the best name I could find online, haha! I didn’t like these ones as much as the others. Even though they were listed as the same length as the other nails, they were a lot shorter on my than the others, and I disliked not having full coverage colour or design. But that’s just my own personal preference. They were still great.

Pictured above is “Totally Busted”, which pictured as a coral-ly colour, but was actually more of a bright in your face orange on my hands.

Pictured above is the design “Hottie” which was one of my favourites. I love purple and I loved the design, so that was an added bonus! The second picture is another macro shot to show you the design up close and personal.

And lastly, pictured above is “Working Girl” (the black with silver crackle) [by the way, that name cracks me up. No person in their right mind would wear crackle polish to a working environment, but hey!], and I lost the name for the zebra stripes. I also still have a few more pairs on the way to me in the mail thanks to some lovely ladies! The surprising part to me is that most of the designs and colours I received were NOT listed on the Impress website, and that includes other designs and colours that I saw people receiving.

So, what did I think?

I loved the imPress press-on nails by Broadway nails. But the fact of the matter is that you won’t find many people saying that. The nails are short, so for people with longer nails these do not work at all, because your nail will be left peaking out at the top, maybe a little or maybe a lot. However, for people like me with shorter nails (or nubbins, as many of us refer to them as), these were perfect. They gave my nails a perfect shape and size. A couple of sets lasted me almost a week before I peeled them off to move onto the next set, and in reality if I hadn’t of taken them off, they would have kept holding strong. The others didn’t last as long but that’s because I took them off, not because they fell off. Speaking of taking them off.. Easy peasy! Just a quick peel off and in 30 seconds they are all off, with no damage to your real nails. I was even able to paint over a couple of pairs with some of my own nail polish and you couldn’t tell at all that there had been a previous colour or design underneath.

So for me, these nails get a 5/5. I will definitely be picking up more!

DISCLAIMER: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes in return for my review, as part of the Canadian Influenster VoxBox program. My reviews, as always, are 100% honest.

A few weeks ago I received a surprise package in the mail from Influenster. You can imagine my surprise when I received this package, seeing as a few days before I had filled out the qualifying survey and was told I did not qualify! But low and behold, they were waiting for me at my door. I received three sample bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and split-end serum in bottles that were simply labelled with what they were and “L’Oreal Canada” (which owns 25 beauty brands), but no brand name. My task was to try out the products and try to figure out what this Mystery Brand could possibly be.

Technically, I should be making two blog posts – one for when I received the mystery products, and one for when I received the full-sized products in the reveal. However, I was a bit late in testing the mystery products because I was trying to figure out if they contained any sort of strawberry or strawberry extracts in the ingredients as I have a severe allergy. My friend and I both contacted Influenster via multiple forms of social media explaining the allergy and asking for a simple yes or no, but they never got back to me. You’d think they would be more concerned, seeing as it would be their butts on the line if anything happened to me because the ingredients were not included on the products. But I let it slide.

Eventually, I got sick of waiting. I decided to take a shower and test out the products and took precautions to make sure that if, by chance, the products did contain anything that could set off my allergies, I would have help right away.

Here we go:

Pictured below were the samples in the Mystery Brand box I received. Simply labelled with what product they were (Shampoo, Conditioner, or Split-End Serum), and that they came from one of the 25 brands within the L’Oreal Canada brand.

My first impressions were good ones. My hair felt clean and shiny, and most importantly it felt healthy. It did not feel weighed down at all. I usually can’t use conditioner because it makes my hair greasy within a couple of hours of showering, but I didn’t have that problem with this conditioner. It made my hair feel soft and not once did I feel like my hair was greasy.

The task at hand was to figure out what the brand could possibly be. I wasn’t sure, but a good friend of mine (you can check out her blog here), gave a good guess and I decided that I liked her guess and that she was probably right.

Here is what we decided it might be:

We made this decision because we knew that the mystery brand contained curuapu butter and Phyto-Keratin complex, both of which were being advertised by Garnier Canada for their new product line. So, after doing some research, common sense told us that this likely was the Mystery Brand! I was super excited, because I love Garnier products.

A week or so later, I received a HUGE (and pretty heavy) box at my doorstep that came from Garnier Canada! Yay! I was expecting maybe one or two full-sized products, but not THIS!

I apologize for the photo quality of the first picture! I took it at night time with dim lights and my iPhone camera, which isn’t so awesome. Here is the gigantic box full of the products that I received:

So exciting! Here are some close up pictures:

So now it’s time for me to give my final impressions on the products.

I’ve been using these products exclusively now since I received the mystery box, and my hair is loving them. I will share a dirty little secret with you: I had a few days where I was very ill, and I spent most of those days sleeping and showers were not part of the routine for that time. As gross as that is, after 3 days without washing my hair after having used these products in my previous wash, my hair still felt clean. I was surprised, because usually my hair feels nasty after only a day, and after only a few hours when I have used a conditioning product. But surprisingly, three days later, my hair was still soft, clean, silky, and did not feel weighed down. That is a big deal for me! I have serious problems with it comes to my hair so this felt awesome.

Well, I think that’s about it! Did you receive these voxboxes from Influenster and Garnier Canada? What were YOUR opinions on the products?

About a month ago, I received an e-mail from Influenster saying that I had been selected for the Sally Hansen VoxBox! This was going to be my first Voxbox and I was super excited to receive it. Soon after receiving my e-mail (like, the day after!), I received the box and it contained 3 Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Polishes. These three polishes included:

Pat on the Black (a dark deep purple crelly-ish colour)

Red My Lips (a basic red colour)

Jaded (an seafoam green/blue colour)

Overall, these polishes worked well, especially for being a drugstore brand polish. Pat on the Black and Red my Lips were both two coaters, however, Jaded took more like 4-5 coats to become an opaque colour. What I like about these Sally Hansen colours is that they have 7 benefits in one bottle, and I really enjoy the shape of the brush, I find that it’s easier to apply with this new brush.

Here’s some info directly from the Sally Hansen website providing some information on the polishes:

I find that these polishes do have quite the shine to them, but I wouldn’t call it a “gel shine” that Sally Hansen claims they have. However, for being a drugstore brand, they really do a good job. I can definitely pull these off without a topcoat and still have the look of a top coat. I personally chose to put a top coat on some fingers to prevent chips and tip wear. I left some fingers without top coat to see (Note: it did chip after day 2 without topcoat and 3 days with topcoat). I enjoyed that these polishes dried relatively fast and they were dry to the touch after a maximum of five minutes – so this would make them good if you want to do a quick manicure and you don’t have much time to get them done.

Here’s a cute mani I did with “Jaded”. Please excuse the mess, I’m bad at this, LOL